Tweaking the empty nest

By Stefanie Arias :
June 14, 2013

Empty nester Sue Peace turned two of her sons' bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Grey Forest home. She decorated this room for girls, shopping at sales, flea markets and craft shows.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. An old sadle hangs on the wall above the dresser in the boys room.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. A girl's sun hat hangs on the girl's room that she redecorated for her grand daughter.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. A Cowboy's hat hangs on the room redecorted for the grandsons.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. Family heirloom dolls sit next to a child's toy kitchen in the girl's room.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. The boys room is decorated in a western theme.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

Sue Peace dealing with the empty nest syndrome has turned two of her son's bedrooms into rooms for her grandchildren in her Helotes home, on Friday, June 7, 2013. The boys room is decorated in a western theme.

This room in the Shavano Park home of Terry Scott used to be her son's room and has now become a room for her twin granddaughters.

Photo By SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

This room in the Shavano Park home of Terry Scott used to be her son's room and has now become a room for her twin granddaughters.

Photo By SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

This room in the Shavano Park home of Terry Scott used to be her daughter's room and has now become a Marilyn Monroe-themed guest room. Another room in the same home was her son's room and has now become a room for her twin granddaughters.

Like fledglings, recent high school and college graduates are testing their wings. And parents are studying the prospects for their empty nests.

Repurposing a child's empty room is about fulfilling the needs of a changing family and opening the door to new design possibilities.

“There is a time when the young adult reaches a place where they're not interested in that teenage high school space anymore,” said designer Mary Beth Edgerton. “They say down with the football mums, down with the trophies, let's pack that all away. It's interesting that it happens to all of them, usually in the middle of college.”

For most parents, the transition takes a little longer, mainly due to budget, Edgerton said.

“They put their energy and money into (their child's) education, and once the education is over they sort of get a raise,” she said. “With that comes the adrenaline to make changes. It's pretty universal.”

Once the time is right, the next step is to decide what to do with the room, and that all depends on the homeowners' needs.

“I turned mine immediately into an office,” Edgerton said.

For clients, however, she's worked on everything from guest rooms and dens to man caves and playrooms for grandchildren. She helped Shavano Park homeowner Terry Scott transform her two children's rooms after they moved out for good. Scott's daughter's room changed from a funky, contemporary teen bedroom into an elegant Marilyn Monroe-themed guest room. Her son's Western-themed bedroom became a playroom for her 10 grandchildren.

“My daughter's taste was funkier. Now it's more Zen with a little funk,” Scott said. “She had fallen in love with these posters of Marilyn Monroe, so we took that and made the room around it.”

The wall color, furniture and a few pieces of art remain from the original room. Edgerton replaced the bedding, covered the antique couch at the foot of the bed in silk and moved a chandelier from the dining room to hang in place of a ceiling fan.

“It's sophisticated and still reflects the child that lived there,” Edgerton said.

Aside from one dresser, everything changed in Scott's son's bedroom, including the addition of a pair of cribs for a set of twin grandchildren and a metal shelving unit that had been in the laundry room for toys.

Neither of her children was sad to see their old rooms change, Scott said.

“They were thrilled to see they could bring the kids over and put them down for naps and not have to worry about bringing a baby bed, and the bigger kids can nap in the guest bedroom,” she said.

The transition might be more difficult for some, and in those cases the changes start with a conversation, Edgerton said.

“Parents will have kids go through their things, the typical throw out/give away/keep process,” she said. “Everybody sort of gets energized by that process. Then, if there's some particular treasures they keep, they can leave them out as accessories and still put pieces of that child's personality in there.”

Sue Peace, who lives in Grey Forest, had no such anxiety when converting her three sons' bedrooms.

“I thought, 'What am I going to do with these rooms?'” she said. “We already have an office in the house, and we have a pool house that's kind of like a man cave already. I changed them a little bit into guest rooms after the boys moved out, but who needs three guest rooms?”

Two of her sons' rooms are connected by a Jack-and-Jill bathroom, so when the family started to grow, Peace overhauled those rooms into playrooms for her four grandchildren.

“It wasn't a sentimental thing by that time,” she said.

Each room has a crib, twin bed and dresser, along with toys and books. One is decorated for girls, the other for boys.

The girl room has floral bedding, a play kitchen set and small pink table and chairs. For wall art, Peace took illustrations from a 1940s-era Little Golden Book of nursery rhymes and had them blown up to poster size and framed ($30 total to reprint; $45 each to frame).

“It was a fun way to do some really cute little things relatively inexpensively,” she said. “Never having any daughters, to do a little girl's room was too fun.”

The boys room is Western-themed, with framed posters from old cowboy movies and a vintage saddle frame on the walls. A friend made the dust ruffle and window treatment using fabric with a pattern of cowboys and wagons.

Making drastic changes to a space doesn't have to break the bank, Edgerton said.

“On the low end, you can completely redo a room with paint, new bedding, new lamps — things that can be picked up at Marshall's or Target for a few hundred dollars,” she said.

Editing items out of a bedroom can also make a big difference.

“Imagining it just as a hotel room, keeping only the items that are necessary for a guest room, can be done a shoestring,” she said. “It makes the room feel open and spacious and fresh.”

Peace redecorated the rooms in her home herself, and even though she didn't have a set budget, she shopped at sales, flea markets and craft shows.

Scott, who has worked with Edgerton on many projects, said she is constantly updating spaces in her home and often using items she already owns.

“Change excites me,” she said. “It's interesting when you put something in a new room. The light hits it differently. It may have a different use.”

Once a child's old room is redone, many homeowners are inspired to update other parts of the house.

“It's such a transition time in their life,” Edgerton said. “They start seeing their house in a whole different light. This is sort of the spark that gets the whole thing going. The most I've redone have been for the joy of having a fresh look.”

Just because the little birds have flown away doesn't mean the nest is empty. It means you have more space to spread your wings.